Author Wes Locher has teamed up with Stratics for a giveaway of his new book Braving Britannia. This book explores the history and impact of Ultima Online and includes interviews from current and past dev team members as well as many UO and Stratics community members. Click here for more details!

I you all. Release 51 is wonderful, absolutely wonderful: Quest item highlights, vendor customization, FPS improvements over last 4 releases are amazing Wow. Will miss bag mode, but honestly never used it adventuring…​

– Daigoji Gai​

Another release filled with steps in the right direction . I am very happy to have backed this game so long ago and totally get how we got to this point thru the winding road of development. Love the specialization and the addition of the Lost Vale. Appreciate the hard work the team has done all along. Looking forward to Heraldry next release.​

– Sean Silverfoot​

Lost Vale looks amazing! The quality of the scenes has really gone up over time, lost vale should get as much promo ad time as possible! ​

– devourerofmemes​

A lot of us may not say it often enough but we appreciate all the work you guys put into this. While we may not agree with every decision we continue to respect and love the game, and the team’s vision. This latest release is a fantastic achievement and we’re looking forward to launch with barely-bundled excitement!​

Super excited about this release! Proficiency is going to be a game changer. Bring it on! Huzzah!​

– Kain Darkmoor​

Thank you for another awesome release, @DarkStarr ! All those polishing, contents adding and fixing really makes me feel like the official release date is drawing near. Hats off to all Portalarium devs for their hard work!​

– Max Bennis​

The Making of South Midmaer Way (cont.)

South Midmaer Way is a Tier 2 scene located in the very center of the Midmaer region. It used to be the location of a thriving city with lovely canals on the shore of a large lake in an otherwise arid region. The city grew rich on trade through the area as it sat astride the main road. The rulers of the city built tombs to themselves amongst the cliffs and hid their treasures in them, defended by traps of course! However the lake dried up and the town was abandoned. Now opportunistic Satyrs have set up a bazaar in the ruins and Plunderers raid the tombs.

For Spring 2018 we are once again creating two rare items to celebrate, a lepus mask and easter basket. Rumors also abound concerning the return of the dreaded Arch Lapin!

2018 Lepus Mask

SXSW Latest News: Booth Details and Book Signing!

SXSW Gaming Expo released the Expo floor map late last week and we are primely located between the PC Arena and Esports Tournament Stage (also conveniently near the bathrooms)!

We will have four Alienware PCs where you can play the game, a large flat screen TV looping videos, and free giveaways during the entire show! Joining us in the booth as well will be our partners at Meretz (fitness app) and the Aerie Fund.

Earlier this week Scott “Lum” Jennings posted our latest request for NPC submissions for Graff Island. This is for Developer+ level backers who are eligible for the “Design an NPC” reward “Help create and name a character in the game”.

For reference here is our current status on which towns we have done this work on and which towns remain to be done:

Thank you for your continuing support of Shroud of the Avatar! This month, we’re seeking entries for inhabitants of Graff Island!

Graff Island is the home of the spectacularly wealthy Graff family. Their patriarch, Lauran Graff, discovered the secret magic locked within the games found in his namesake mine, and mages throughout the realm seek out Mystic Graff Gems for the potency of their spellcrafting. This has made the Graff’s private island a popular and wealthy retreat – both for those wanting a bit of safety off the beaten track, and for those wishing to find a way to reach the notorious Master Graff himself!

Graff Island is the only town we will be seeking submissions from for R52, due to other work being done this release. If you do NOT want your backer NPC to be in Graff Island, you may want to wait. I will update this thread if we are running low on submissions – generally we are OK on duplicate submissions for characters who don’t get adopted (such as guards) but if you absolutely have a character who should be in a given city (such as Brittany) you should wait until we advertise for that city.

First, some brief notes:

Graff Island is one of our “uncloning” scenes, where we go back and fill out unique content for each village and city. Thus, the NPCs are already in the game, but we can change appearance (to a degree, as seen below), gender, etc. to suit your request. If you want to pick a specific NPC (for example, one near your own house) we will do our best to accomodate you but may not be able to.

NPC visual customization, as you may have noticed, is still at a very early stage in development. Right now for the backers who want to be added to Graff Island, we cannot offer any visual customization options beyond our standard gallery of NPC models. If you would like to have input over the visual customization of your NPC, you can wait for further releases when we can offer this. We will also allow a one-time visual re-customization once customization has been added if you would like to add your NPC now.

Response to this will be on a first-come first-served basis for each call for responses. If your NPC doesn’t appear in Graff Island, feel free to respond again in future posts. We have quite a few towns and cities to populate (over 18, actually…)

We are allowing people who have already submitted NPCs to submit their ideas for Graff Island as well if they like, but people who have not yet submitted an NPC will take priority over those who have.

When responding, please list a first and second choice for profession.

There are a few NPCs which already have been placed as part of the main quest (Lauran Graff, etc.) which will not be changed.

NPCs for Graff Island can be human. And no, you can’t be related to the Graffs.

NPC background (optional): A paragraph on whom your NPC is, how they would respond to nosy outlanders poking about their business, what brings them to Graff Island (or keeps them there), or anything else you’d like to add. We reserve the right to edit and/or reject any background that does not fit the lore and setting of the game.

Please specify in your submission that this NPC is for Graff Island.

We will respond if: your NPC is used; if it is rejected for whatever reason (such as an inappropriate name); if a supplied background is inappropriate, or if your NPC missed the cutoff for this release.

Please note this is a reward for Founder era Developer level or above pledges.

Thanks for your support, and hope you find a gem in Graff Island!

R51 QA Testing Incentive Winners

Thank you to everyone who joined us during the latest round of QA Server testing for the launch of Release 51! We are incredibly thankful for the community’s contribution in helping our team test new content and make sure every Release launches as smoothly as possible.

The following winners have been randomly drawn and prizes delivered to their game accounts! Prize pool includes gold crowns, ant farm, antennae, bug cloak, and set of bug paintings.

Scoffer – Antennae Hat

Ancev – Antennae Hat

mystarr – Antennae Hat

Pawz – Antennae Hat

Brass Knuckles – Ant Cloak

sotavirtues – Ant Cloak

Ajivani – Ant Cloak

Rinaldi – Ant Cloak

Sheamus McGuinness – Insect Painting Set

SpotD – Insect Painting Set

Archer – Insect Painting Set

Applerust – Insect Painting Set

Asbury Baker – 5 Gold Crowns Testing Reward

Duke Gréagóir – 5 Gold Crowns Testing Reward

Fruck – 5 Gold Crowns Testing Reward

Lao Tzu – 5 Gold Crowns Testing Reward

Duke Lorimus – Ant Farm

Mystic – Ant Farm

Doctorface – Ant Farm

Boradic Boneslasher – Ant Farm

Thank you EVERYONE, again, for contributing to another fantastic release!

Want to participate for a chance to win prizes in the next release? Here’s how!

URGENT: Confirm Your Physical Rewards Shipping Address!

We are extending the deadline to confirm your physical address to March 9, 2018.

If you are receiving physical goods as part of pledge rewards, and have not yet confirmed your physical address, please do so now.

For those who are receiving physical goods and have confirmed their physical addresses, you will receive another email from us stating the shipping address we have for you on file. At that time, please verify we have the correct address.

Thank you for your patience! We could not have made Shroud of the Avatar without your support!

Release 51 Postmortem Telethon

Greetings Avatars,

The R51 Postmortem Telethon is coming up fast on March 2 from 3-7pm CT! Starr’s birthday is also coming up (March 12), so we’re celebrating with some Darkstarr themed stretch goals! We are also expiring a bunch of items with major changes to the store immediately after the telethon including changes to crown pricing, bundle pricing, and available inventory. See the forum announcement on these changes for more details.

LIVESTREAM SCHEDULE (Central Time Zone)

Telethons are livestreamed on Twitch and include answers to your gameplay questions, world building tours, prize giveaways, sales on items, and more! Here is the schedule:

3PM: Introductions and Postmortem Q&A

3:45PM: Deep Dive 1: Combat

4:30PM: World Building Tour: New Scenes & Side Quests

5:30PM: Deep Dive 2: Physical Goods

6:15PM: Postmortem Q&A Continues

7PM: Ending Announcements

Schedule is subject to change. Check back here before the telethon begins!

As a special bonus, we are offering funding rewards to any backer that pledges a minimum of $5 for twelve hours during the day of the telethon, on March 2 from 12:00 PM to 11:59 PM CT (Spending Store Credit to make $5 minimum purchase does not apply) .

NOTE: While the livestream ends at 7pm CT, everyone will have until 11:59 PM CT to spend $5 to get the stretch goals. We will announce the final total on the following day.

$10K: /mosh (The ultimate chaotic dance!)

$25K: Darkstarr Morningstar

$35K: Darkstarr Pavers: pavers with Darkstarr symbol

$50K: Darkstarr Throne

$65K: Darkstarr Clocktower (Darkstarr loves watches!)

$80K: Darkstarr Black Chain Armor: Special chain version of the custom armor in the Darkstarr Concept painting

*Please keep in mind that stretch goal rewards take time to develop and will most likely not be available in-game until Release 53 at the earliest. We will keep you updated!

CHEER ON THE DEVS!

For every $2,500 donated, all devs on camera have to dance, sing, or perform some other act of amazement.

Additionally, we will be spinning the Wheel of Fortune! The wheel will have 12 different categories of sales plus the Lord British and Darkstarr wildcards where they get to choose any category! Each time a category comes up it will go on sale at approx. 20% off for 1 hour.

We will be giving prizes away on an hourly basis with many being given away multiple times. If you wish to win prizes during the event, be in Discord chat! We will be active on Twitch and YouTube chats as well, but they will not be our portal for prize giveaways.

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS!

We will be answering questions throughout the livestream, so submit them in the comments section of the original post at this link (not this weekly update!) or on Discord chat during the event.

With Release 50, Free Trial users can now choose any of the three paths (Truth, Love, or Courage) to start, but after selection are locked to that single path going forward. We changed this from locking them to a path that we had chosen (Courage) because we felt this misrepresented a core part of the brand of the game, which is “choice in all things” (ex. choosing your path, no classes, choose virtue/non-virtue, etc.).

Free Trial access allows you to play the entire game in any of the Online modes with a few key differences in game play. You will be able to explore hundreds of scenes, talk with thousands of players, adventure through the opening quests, and gain experience and skills as you get used to the world of New Britannia!

Here is the updated list of Visitor limits:

The term (Visitor) is appended to their character name

Max skill level set to 50

NEW! Limited to a single Story Path (Truth, Love or Courage)

Cannot purchase nor sell items via Player Vendors nor Public Vendors

No ownership of player property nor use of player property signs

Cannot move/interact with items on a player property (even if given permissions)

Cannot interact with public chests

Cannot give items to other players via Trade or Mail

Cannot flag as Open PVP

Cannot gain nor create ransom items when you kill or are killed in PVP (in Open PVP zones)

Character data may be deleted if not eventually upgraded to a paid account

Thank you for your interest in Portalarium! We currently have an opening in Austin, Texas for a full-time, Executive Assistant position, as described below. If you’d like to join the Portalarium Tribe, the team building the ground-breaking Shroud of the Avatar game, please submit your resume/cover letter to: [email protected]

This position starts as a full-time contract position with potential transition to full-time employee within 6-12 months. Once the transition to employee occurs, then the employee position includes company paid medical, dental, and vision through United Healthcare.

Visit the official Community Calendar to see the great lineup of activities our amazing community has planned for this weekend! And be sure to check out this month’s Release Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events.

The Magnificent Trophy Rooms Contest Final Weekend!

It’s the final weekend to submit your Trophy Room! You have the fun opportunity to show off your hunting heroism, crafting coordination, and trophy triumphs in this new three part contest.

Adding on to last year’s trophy room contest, we now have the wild boars and updated wolves to make into new trophies! Here’s how the contest will work…

PART 1: Hunt down a creature, defeat another player (to get their skull), or catch a fish!

PART 2: Craft the trophy from that creature (human skulls come as-is, no preparation needed…)

PART 3: Display your trophy triumphs in a single room of a house you have access to!
​

Submissions Must Include:

2-3 screens of combating a creature that can provide a trophy (1x with UI, 1x without)

2-3 screens of you in the crafting process for creating the trophies (2x with UI)

Brief one paragraph description for each screenshot category. Please include as much basic detail about the location and other statistics that might be useful for others wanting to hunt the area to craft their own trophies.

Submit all screenshots in a single post response to This Forum Thread. Deadline to submit is Monday, Feb. 26 at 11:59pm CT.

You are invited to join the Welcome Quest in Release 51. It will be held on Saturday, February 24, 2018 starting at 12pm (Noon) CT and lasting an hour. Greagoir Pendragon will be active 30 minutes before the event and during the event. We are traveling to the town of New Heaven. Located just east of Brittany along the coast.

Crowfall is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), a game that is played online in a persistent, shared environment with thousands (and thousands, and thousands…) of other players.

In this ‘Throne War Simulator’, characters are persistent but the campaign worlds are not, thanks to voxel tech which enables fully-destructible settings. A seamless blend of an MMO with a large-scale strategy game, players are immortal champions, traveling between realms to fight in an eternal War of the Gods.

Stratics is the oldest continually running MMORPG Fansite on the Internet. Founded in 1997 Stratics has served the Ultima Online Community for 18 years. We strive to provide the most complete social experience for Ultima Online players.